0
|
0 |
|
|
No trouble seen in cattle trade with Canada
WINNIPEG, MANITOBA - Trade with the United States is not expected to be affected following confirmation by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency Wednesday that a mature beef cow in the Prairie province of Alberta tested positive for mad cow disease. "There just isn't a risk" from Canadian beef coming into the United States, said U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, adding that the latest mad cow case will not alter the trading relationship between the world's two largest trading partners. The animal is Canada's eighth case of mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, since the first native-born case in 2003. There are some in the U.S. meat industry, however, who say Canada's ongoing BSE problems directly affect U.S. meat exports because of cross-border beef trade between the two. "Until aggressive steps are taken, Canada poses a significant risk for BSE and the U.S. Agriculture Department should respond by closing the border until they can scientifically determine just how widespread this is," said Bill Bullard, chief executive of U.S. rancher lobby group R-CALF. The World Organization for Animal Health has a formula that can lead to international borders closing to meat and cattle following food safety issues, but U.S. Department of Agriculture spokesman Ed Loyd said the procedure is hard to determine. The complex formula includes the length of the feed ban, other mitigation measures in place and the total number of mad cow cases. "I think they're still a ways away from that, but there are a lot of other factors," Loyd said about Canada in the wake of the latest mad cow case. The total number of mad cow cases "would be something that is a factor, but wouldn't be a determining" one, Loyd said. The affected animal's age is estimated to be between eight and 10 years, meaning it likely contracted the disease through contaminated feed sometime before a 1997 feed ban or during its early implementation, the Canadian agency said. Canada banned the inclusion of protein from ruminants such as cattle and sheep in cattle feed in 1997. The federal food safety agency said no part of the animal's carcass entered the human or animal food supply, and an investigation is under way to locate the cow's birth farm. |
|
This page was last updated on Monday, October 27, 2008. |
